FX.co ★ ECB to remove 500-euro bill

The European Central Bank started to get rid of 500-euro bills faster when it was expected. An official decision is yet to be made but according to the ECB’s statistics a certain amount of bills has already been taken out of circulation.
Since January of the current year the number of 500-euro bills decreased by 20 million, and at the moment, 594,417,006 bills are accounted in circulation. It looks like the regulator has discreetly withdrawn 10 billion euros.
Several years ago, Head of the European Anti-Fraud Office Giovanni Kessler spoke in support of the idea to ban 500-euro bills. In February this year this issue was considered by the ECB.
The idea behind getting rid of 500-euro bills is simply to make it more complicated for criminals as it is often mentioned in financial operations of terrorist groups. Specialists also say that 500-euro bills mostly circulate outside Europe. On the European Union territory 500-euro note is mostly used to evade taxes and for corruption purposes.